


What was that idiot thinking?

by SoulWeaver_Balinia (Naorimasa)



Category: Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Genre: Gen, Letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 03:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10676766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naorimasa/pseuds/SoulWeaver_Balinia
Summary: Dr. Bledsoe's thought process as he was writing his letter for the Invisible Man.





	What was that idiot thinking?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this piece for my 2014-2015 AP Language and Composition class. I had to write an introduction for the piece, which was as follows:
>
>> I chose to develop Dr. Bledsoe's role in the novel. In our discussions in class, we discussed Bledsoe frequently, and how the letter he wrote to Mr. Emerson and the things he said to the Invisible Man impacted the protagonist's journey throughout the rest of the novel.
>> 
>> My aim was to explain his thought processes while he was writing the letter, and why he wrote it. It wasn't out of spite. He had good reasons for writing what he did, and he wanted the best for the protagonist, but he also had the nature of the school's relationship with its donors to consider, and allowing the protagonist to remain at the institution would have damaged that relationship, no matter what Mr. Norton said in his defense.
>> 
>> The letter itself is copied word for word from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, pages 190 to 191. Dr. Bledsoe wrote the letter sometime between his discussion with the protagonist, which ended when the Invisible Man left his office after being told he had "two days in which to close [his] affairs" (Ellison, 145), and the protagonist's retrieval of the seven letters "addressed to men with impressive names" (150) from Bledsoe's secretary. While this piece does not fit directly in between the paragraphs of the novel, it is an event that occurred off-screen somewhere in between the aforementioned pages.
>> 
>> I had trouble mirroring Ellison's style, but I gave it my best shot. I had a lot of sarcastic monologues, and I believe that my use of sentence fragments was just as effective as Ellison's. I used a rambling train of thought that I believe is similar to what Ellison used, and my attempt at writing in the first person hopefully mirrored Ellison's well enough.

> My dear Mr. Emerson:

How the hell was I supposed to phrase this? It wasn't as if I wanted to expel the boy; the kid had forced my hand. What the hell had he been thinking? Taking one of the trustees down into the slums, allowing that fool Trueblood to tell his life's story (I still didn't understand the reasoning behind letting that family live in the old cabins built during slavery times; hell, I didn't understand why the damn things hadn't been torn down), then allowing Norton to get a whiskey at the Golden Day, of all places, rather than dragging him back to the school like he should have.

> The bearer of this letter is a former student of ours

Oh, how I _hated_ referring to the school with the "royal" _we_. I ran the school, nobody else. Not the white folks who thought they were being _charitable_ and _generous_ with their donations to a black state college. Not even the ever-present ghost of the Founder, who the white men all revered. No, it was Dr. Bledsoe, the black man who told the white men what to think, who ran the school.

> (I say _former_ because he shall never, under any circumstances, be enrolled as a student here again)

Who in their right mind would allow a student who had messed up that badly back to their school?

> who has been expelled for a most serious defection from our strictest rules of deportment.

Well, there weren't any _written_ rules that prohibited a student from doing what the boy had done, but there certainly were _unwritten_ ones that any person with common sense should be capable of following without a problem.

> Due, however, to circumstances the nature of which I shall explain to you in person on the occasion of the next meeting of the board,

Oh, yes, the board meeting, where all the trustees who owned the college came down to discuss inane things that had nothing to do with the interests of the school. Nothing ever got done in those meetings, and none of the trustees cared. However, the failure of those meetings did allow me to do whatever I deemed best with the money the board members donated.

> it is in the best interests of the college that this young man have no knowledge of the finality of his expulsion. For it is indeed his hope to return here to his classes in the fall.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why, though. Why would an intelligent black young man like that want to stay at this backwards school in the South? No, he would be much better off in New York. There, at least, being black wasn't considered as harsh a crime as it was here.

> However, it is to the best interests of the great work which we are dedicated to perform, that he continue undisturbed in these vain hopes while remaining as far as possible from our midst.

It wouldn't do at all if he came back and ran into Mr. Norton again. No, I would make sure that young man would stay as far away from my school as possible. Who knows what further damage his presence would cause.

> This case represents, my dear Mr. Emerson, one of the rare, delicate instances in which one for whom we held great expectations

I hadn't held _any_ expectations for him. It's not like I knew the boy well. I hadn't even known what classes he was taking, or talked to his teachers about this. All I knew was what Mr. Norton had told me, which was that he was a bright young man who hadn't studied Ralph Waldo Emerson yet, but should, and that the boy had been very good at listening as he rambled about all sorts of inane things. Most of this was said in a very breathy voice, as the stroke Norton had experienced had made him out of breath.

> has gone grievously astray, and who in his fall threatens to upset certain delicate relationships between certain interested individuals and the school.

Yes, the relationship between the ignorant white donors and the money the school received. I couldn't run a school with no funding. Anyway, the donors only came for special occasions, and what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. That was one of the reasons that what the boy had done was so horrible. It upset the balance, and had shown Mr. Norton more than I wanted him to see. Mr. Norton would probably tell the other trustees, and then the entire board would get angry at me for keeping things from them.

> Thus, while the bearer is no longer a member of our scholastic family, it is highly important that his severance with the college be executed as painlessly as possible.

Although it was doubtful that the boy would sue, it could never hurt to be cautious in these situations.

> I beg of you, sir, to help him continue in the direction of that promise, which, like the horizon, recedes ever brightly and distantly beyond the hopeful traveler.

There, something that created a pleasant image, but vague enough so the recipient would feel a sense of accomplishment and pride. Also, vague enough as to whether or not the trustee was obligated to hire the boy, allowing him to absolve himself of all responsibility. None of the men these letters would be sent to would have provided good employment for the kid, anyway. They were all racist, prejudiced bastards who thought that donating to a school that educated young black people absolved them of any guilt from the unsavory things they said about negroes.

> Respectfully, I am your  
>  humble servant,

Joyfully kissing up to the white man again. Wonderful.

> A. Herbert Bledsoe

Now, to write six more of these goddamned things, copying practically word for word. This was going to be fun.

**Author's Note:**

> I ended up turning this in several months late. Still got an 86%, though (-10% for lateness)


End file.
